Mark Webber officially announced his departure from reigning constructor champion Team Red Bull Racing and from the sport of Formula 1 entirely. An eventful seven-season stint at the Milton Keynes-based race team, Webber has earned 36 podium places, nine wins, 11 pole positions, and 35 podium finishes.
Despite Mark Webber's success with the team, growing tensions between Webber and his teammate Sebastian Vettel has caused relationships within the team to strain. Most recently, Sebastian Vettel blatantly ignored team orders in order to steal a victory away from Mark Webber at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.
No doubt, without the support of a team committed to Mark Webber's championship title pursuit, the Australian racing driving is falling out of love with the sport. Now, Mark Webber has officially announced his latest multi-year contract with Porsche in pursuit of its revived LMP1 World Endurance Championship campaign starting 2014.
“It’s an honour for me to join Porsche at its return to the top category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team,” Webber said at today’s announcement. “I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in F1.”
Porsche returns to the highest category of endurance racing in pursuit of an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A promising fit, Mark Webber will bring the team invaluable Formula 1 experience as well as past Le Mans prototype experience from his stint with Mercedes-Benz. In 1998, Webber finished runner-up in the FIA GT Championship behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz CLR prototype.
Porsche aims to field two LMP1 vehicles in the 2014 WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Webber will be joined by veteran Porsche works drivers including Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, and former F1 test driver Neel Jani, who was also confirmed at Porsche on Thursday.
Amid Mark Webber's formula 1 retirement, Red Bull must search for a talented driver to cover Webber's void.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said: “We’re in the fortunate position that there are an awful lot of people who would like to drive a Red Bull racing car. How much longer Mark wants to go on is a question only he can answer, but from our perspective we will only change [our drivers] for something better than we currently have.”
When Telegraph pushed Horner a little further, the team principal admitted: “Kimi would have to be an option if he were to be available.”
